Aubry's Big Birthday Present from My-Myee and Papa

Ready? O Tay! Warrrrrrr Eagle! Hey!

Neighborhood Visitors for Paisley

We Miss Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Grandma and Grandpa were here for 3 weeks and were an invaluable part of our team! They took care of Aubry every morning during her winter vacation, cooked breakfast, and bought groceries countless times. Aubry has been missing them since they left on Wednesday. They had a rough and long trip back (because of delayed flights the trip took two full days instead of one). We know they are glad to be home but we still wish they were here. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for making the new baby transition easier.

The First of Many Matching Clothes - Their Shirts Say I'm the Big Sister and I'm the Baby Sister

Beautiful Paisley

Happy Independence Day!

Our team had it's 4th of July / Canada Day Celebration on Wednesday. Lots of food, fun, and more food. Here are a few photos.

My-Myee, Grandpa and Aubry's First Tea Party

Mom and Paisley Sporting Their Matching Dimples

Welcome Home Little Sister

Aubry Driving to Her Secretarial Job With Barney and Bear

More Recent Pics

We came home with our new bundle of joy on Saturday. It has been wonderful having both sets of grandparents here to help out with Paisley and big sister Aubry who was very surprised to hear that we would be bringing paisley home. They have been taking good care of Mommy and Daddy as well. We celebrated Fathers' Day with our dads yesterday, but just briefly.
Daddy has been falling asleep in some strange places lately, like in Aubry's bed. We have had a lot of well wishing emails and phone calls. Right now we are adjusting to having two small ones in the house, but so far it has been great.
Paisley is calm and quiet and Aubry is a super biger sister. She is constantly concerned with making sure little sister always has a paci in and practices a lot with her new nené. Paisley has two dimples when she smiles and is so cute with everything that she does, which is mostly sleep and eat.
Daddy has a lot of work to do now. We need to get her registered and get her Brazilian birth certificate. We then need to get her U.S. citizenship taken care of and apply for a SSN and U.S. passport so we can travel to see the rest of the family.
Since I started this post Aubry has joined us and held her baby sister for the first time (of course with much supervision). Paisley is now in my lap and giving me inspiration as I continue typing. Papa (Rick) just had a great photo shoot and took lots of sister pictures of the two girls. Probably be posting some of those soon.
It is time for lunch and I am hungry. It is also time for Paisley to get some rest. Thanks to all those who have been keeping us in prayer and are excited with us for our new addition to the family. Mary is recovering from the c-section, but she has a cold and is coughing a lot, which seems to make it harder to get over the pain. Keep her held up in prayer that the cold will go away soon.

Paisley day 1

Paisley Diana Mabery

She arrived. Born at 11:16 Salvador time. Weighing in at 8 lb. 6.5 oz. She is 19 2/3 inches. Mother and baby are doing great. Paisley has a voracious appetite. We will have pictures to share soon.

Aubry's School Uniform

Aubry is really getting settled into her new school. Now, when Mom takes her she just prances on back to her classroom without looking back ready to see her friends Eduarda and Pedro and her teacher Pro Maria. Here is Aubry getting ready for school in her new uniform.

Funeral Travel

I will be traveling to Missouri this weekend to attend my brother's funeral. I have to leave Mary (and Paisley) and Aubry here in Salvador for almost a week. Please lift them up in prayer while I am away from them and especially that Paisley will wait for her daddy to get back to make her appearance in this world. Also keep my parents, sister-in-law, sister, nephews and nieces in your prayers during this difficult time. We have all been blessed to have Jeff as a part of our lives and we miss him terribly.

Let's Start Talking

Our Let's Start Talking (campaign reading and conversing about the book of Luke with English students) team this year came early. They are a group Canadians: 3 guys and 1 girl in their early 20's. The boys are staying at the church building and Sarah is staying at the Sass' house. Kreston (one of the boys) has been here before with LST with his parents and sister 3 years ago (our first LST team). So for him this is old hat. The LSTers have about 50 Brazilian readers total which means they still have spots for 10 more. We're seeing some new faces this year that we haven't seen before and the parties are going well - trying to connect the students with the church members. Our first party was a Canada party - red and white. This LST group should be here while Paisley is born but will be leaving soon after. Please, be praying that this LST campaign will reach the hearts of those seeking Jesus and cause many to want to begin this journey with Him.

Free Theology Course

We've had a good turn out for our free theology course at church. This course is advertised in the newspaper and on a banner at the building and we recieved over 30 phone calls of people wanting to sign up for the course. Now, half way through the course we have 9 regular members who will get a certificate of participation at the end. This class is based on our evangelistic Bible studies and offers an overview of who God is and what He wants for our lives. Randy Porter is an excellent teacher and the students are really getting into the lessons. Please, pray specifically for Othon as he is from our church's neighborhood, does not attend church anywhere, and seems to have no Christian background. Othon asks the best questions in class and you can tell that he is really curious about this Christianity thing. We have had 5 great classes so far and still have 3 more to go. Please, keep theology course in your prayers - (especially since the next lesson is our baptism lesson!)!

And the Rains Came Tumbling Down

There has been flooding here in Salvador these last couple of weeks. It has rained for a solid month now, with few breaks in between. It makes things cooler of course which is very nice. However, it also makes attendance go down at church and mold grow everywhere. Not to mention the roof problems at our new building. One Tuesday afternoon we could not even make it home after picking up Aubry from school because the main roads were impassable. We ended up blocked in traffic for an hour and a half until finally we were able to make it to a nearby mall to go to the bathroom and eat lunch and wait out the flood. Wish I had a picture to show you! It has not been this bad since the week we moved here 4 years ago.

Mother's Day

We had a great Mother's Day at church. We started the Mother's Day weekend with a Family Night for our Youth. The youth served their parents an Italian meal and we played "How well do you know your mother?" Saturday morning Aubry had a party at school for her Mom. It was very interactive and she loved every minute. Sunday, we have a Mother's Day breakfast tradition now at church that is a big hit. Matt made muffins for our part and brought meat and cheese. There were about 60 present for our special Mom's Day Sunday. My present was a night to myself complete with candlelight and bubble bath and also a frame from Aubry and a trip to Outback for lunch with Matt Aubry and the team. Yep! We have an Outback in Salvador now! It's a good place to go for free refills, lots of ice, and big salads with ranch dressing (all things I've missed)! Thanks family for a great Mother's Day! It's hard to believe in just a month I'll be a Mom all over again!